Concerning Events

[Emperor Leo]

I've noticed a few things about the events that pop up during the game. Especially the ones that have "hidden" options. Now, I can't think of any specific events but there are some where the options are:

A) Gain +10.00 Prestige
B) Lose -10.00 Prestige

There will be an extra option available due to me having a high Diplomacy (for example) skill:

C) Gain +2.00 Prestige

Usually, it's a case of that the special hidden option is worse than the base options. Shouldn't the hidden options offer me something unique or exciting?

The other thing that bugs me about events is that I never feel challeneged by them. The options are usually a case of:

A) Great option
B) Stupid option
C) Why would you ever pick this option
D) Pointless option

Most players would pick 'A' every time. An argument could be made for roleplaying characters, but I'm sure most players don't want to bury their beloved characters into the ground. Negative traits and unexpected dangers are fun when you have no choice but, usually, the events give a clear cut choice to improve your character. I want events to back me into a corner, to throw moral dilemmas in my face, to make me question my choices. There have been events during my games which have done this, but, it's so rare.

Without wanting to sound like a baby throwing his toys out of the pram, I'd like to see more events. I find that I'm often confronted by the same dozen or so events year in, year out. This is especially tedious during, Feasts, Summer Fairs and Grand Hunts. An errant monk, the Jumping Jews, a cornered bear, a great Hart, a drunk Bishop, etc. Some variations on these would be more than welcome.

"That's not the way to play the game!", "You have no imagination!", "You don't understand the game!". I'm sure that' what you're thinking, but I just wanted to post my views on the game's events. By the way, I'm not bashing Paradox's efforts or dedication to the game, but some events do seem rather bland.

I want to feel like a King holding court. I currently feel like I'm sitting in my throne room, alone, jumping up when someone enters, realising it's the cleaner and sitting back down.

 

[yezhanquan]

Events do need some spicing up. In my current game, I find myself thinking up stuff to keep myself occupied.

 

[Me_]

I somewhat agree on the repeating events. It's especially jarring for the Muslims who always get the same set of events during Ramadan. No variety at all. Hopefully one day we'll get a RPG DLC.
That being said interactive mechanics are better than just events. So here's me hoping for a new and improved palace politics where I can give my court various palace jobs, and they can take various decisions and plot plots associated with their jobs, and a whole new interface tab is dedicated to that. And perhaps with the new Patrician Palaces we can even get an actuall palace holding.

I disagree on the trait options, though. Most of the time it's more like:
A) +10 prestige
B) -10 prestige
C) +5 gold (trait-specific).

 

[Kimberly]

Perhaps Paradox could hold a contest where people can submit their own events, selecting the best to be put into the game? A lot of modders would jump at the chance, I'd imagine.

I agree with you that sometimes the options don't make sense. The education events are a good example of this--usually, one option gives you a good chance of getting a positive trait or otherwise losing a bad one, one option will probably do nothing, one option makes everyone hate your child, and another makes it likely they'll get bad traits. Unless you've worked your way into a position where you're educating an enemy's child, you would never ever pick the bad options. (There are a few good education events, though, like one where you can choose between giving the child Humble or Pride--both are beneficial, so it's a real choice.)

 

[Me_]

Perhaps Paradox could hold a contest where people can submit their own events, selecting the best to be put into the game? A lot of modders would jump at the chance, I'd imagine.

I agree with you that sometimes the options don't make sense. The education events are a good example of this--usually, one option gives you a good chance of getting a positive trait or otherwise losing a bad one, one option will probably do nothing, one option makes everyone hate your child, and another makes it likely they'll get bad traits. Unless you've worked your way into a position where you're educating an enemy's child, you would never ever pick the bad options. (There are a few good education events, though, like one where you can choose between giving the child Humble or Pride--both are beneficial, so it's a real choice.)

Actually there is quite a devious way to use those events: one - if there is an heir to another country (or heir of an heir) in your court (e.g. you married someone's fourth son matrilineary and assassinated the other three) then you can raise a real monster for a rival kingdom; two - you can choose bad traits for your own third, fourth etc. sons to reduce the odds of a successful "X for Kingdom of Y" factions; third - you can deliberately choose fertility reducing trait for your daughters, fourth - as a muslim you will have lots of sons, you may choose to give them traits that will make them like/dislike each other more.

 

[Emperor Leo]

So here's me hoping for a new and improved palace politics where I can give my court various palace jobs, and they can take various decisions and plot plots associated with their jobs, and a whole new interface tab is dedicated to that.

I like this idea. It would make it much more fun if I was playing as a vassal who has attained one of the palace jobs. Although, on the flip-side, this may cause problems to players that hate the micro-management side of the game.#

Hopefully one day we'll get a RPG DLC.

That would be nice. It doesn't even need to be an RPG DLC to please me, though. Just a booster pack for events would be enough.

 

[cybrxkhan]

A very easy way to make many events more interesting is to simply gave most of the personality traits both good and bad attributes. Before I had my own mod which fixed this, traits were a simple matter of pick-the-one-without-a-malus. Shy or gregarious, for example, and I would always pick gregarious even though I'm sort of a shy guy myself and would in theory better roleplay as a shy character. Once traits have both pros and cons, it's much easier to roleplay.

And that's really the only way to make events interesting - don't play them trying to min-max the best stats or benefits or whatever. Just roleplay. The game becomes immensely more fun that way.

 

[DominusNovus]

The main reason these exist is because the AI gets them too, and they make their decision basically randomly, so it allows for the game to be populated by flawed characters. Of course, since the player will generally pick the best option, the player characters will be better off.

 

[Voy]

It wouldn't hurt as much if most traits have bad and good sides. I know there is a mod that changes this, but the vanilla need this too.

 

[cybrxkhan]

It wouldn't hurt as much if most traits have bad and good sides. I know there is a mod that changes this, but the vanilla need this too.

That's my mod. (But CKII+ and a few other big mods also do this as well, to be fair.)

It's really a simple change, too, just a few numbers and words in a text file that can be done in less than 5 minutes, literally, so I see no reason why the devs can't do this.

 

[Voy]

It's really a simple change, too, just a few numbers and words in a text file that can be done in less than 5 minutes, literally, so I see no reason why the devs can't do this.

I think they may fear that all traits will bring each other down and you'll end up with just the base skill level. This can be avoided by adding more none skill level disadvantages like with the kind trait: minus in tax income.

 

[cybrxkhan]

I think they may fear that all traits will bring each other down and you'll end up with just the base skill level. This can be avoided by adding more none skill level disadvantages like with the kind trait: minus in tax income.

Well, that would depend on what sort of pros and cons they would plan on adding to the traits. For instance (and I only say this as an example, and not as shameless self-promotion), I've been using the trait changes in my mod ever since 1.06, and haven't had any serious issues with reduction in base skill level, simply because most characters have no more than 5 traits anyways. But indeed, as you say, there can be more pros and cons than just attribute changes - tax income, relationship modifiers, battle bonuses or maluses, etc., can all be put in.

 

[Emperor Leo]

Before I had my own mod which fixed this, traits were a simple matter of pick-the-one-without-a-malus. Shy or gregarious, for example, and I would always pick gregarious even though I'm sort of a shy guy myself and would in theory better roleplay as a shy character. Once traits have both pros and cons, it's much easier to roleplay.

I've taken a look at your mod and it looks very nice indeed! In terms of vanilla events, I think the game would benefit a lot more from flavour events which aid in the roleplaying aspect. The events wouldn't all need to be trait related, just something that gives me a dilemma.